Major Memory Vendor: We're Basically Sold Out Through 2029

SK Hynix, one of the world’s largest memory-chip makers, expects demand for DRAM and high-bandwidth memory (HBM) to exceed supply through 2030. The company says its available output for the next three years, through 2029, is effectively committed: customers have secured more than half of its manufacturing capacity for 2027 and 2028 through long-term agreements, and are negotiating additional purchases. SK Hynix has signed agreements with 14 major customers, including global cloud providers; the contracts generally span five years, and the company is discussing extending some of them. It was the world’s second-largest DRAM supplier in the second quarter, with a 25% market share, behind Samsung.

The company is investing to expand production, but new facilities take years to build, so it expects difficulty meeting customers’ near-term volume needs. Continued scarcity could keep electronics prices unusually high through the decade, with graphics cards already affected by rising costs and reports that Nvidia may delay new models. PC and smartphone shipments could also fall as memory becomes more expensive and harder to obtain. SK Hynix nevertheless expects overall memory-market growth to continue: increasing demand for AI infrastructure should more than offset weaker purchases of consumer devices.